Thursday, 31 October 2013

I love going to the cinema but sometimes funds are low! My solution? Make my own cinema in my room.It's so easy and I love how it looks, with the pretty fairy lights all around my bed!As it's Halloween tonight, I thought it would be a perfect excuse to write a post on films as I know a lot of people will either be watching a scary film or telling each other scary stories. I prefer the first option, but on that note, not too scary a film. So I've picked Harry Potter! Who doesn't love Harry Potter anyway.What you'll need:•Laptops•Film/films of your choice•Blankets•Cushions•Food•Drink

And this will probably happen if you have a pet too.. But the more the merrier right?

I love snuggling up in my blanket, especially on a cold night. With the cold weather now here, that's one of the best things, along with a nice hot drink... making it a bonus of having the cinema in your room! You can have hot chocolate, tea or coffee with you! Not to mention stuffing your face with nice little treats. Perfect for a night in with friends or a girlie night with your sister and you don't have to go to all the hassle of getting dressed up to go to the cinema, you can even go to your friend's house in a onesie if you like! A home cinema is all about comfort and being in the company of your friends.Also as Halloween will be over fairly soon, Christmas would be a great opportunity to try this out for yourself. You don't need much as I've shown above and that's a really lovely way to spend an evening or a whole day if you want to have a film marathon. One of those lazy days that you need one in a while, it can be really relaxing. Why not try it out!

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

I'm not usually one for wearing acrylic nails, but I really wanted to do something Halloween-y and seeing as my nail painting isn't the best lately, I thought rather than doing nail art myself, I'd get some ready made ones. I love Halloween and haven't done anything fancy dress for it in ages and the closest I can get to without dressing up is doing my nails. And personally, I think they look great! I bought some for the first time from Primark a while ago and they looked awful, I took them off almost instantly. These are from Claire's Accessories and are really good. They're not exactly cheap as they were £5.50 but comparing them to the other High Street shops I went into that had Halloween nails, these are the best value for money. And you are getting two sets so it's not bad. There's 24 in the pack and 5 different designs in different sizes, so you can mix and match which is what I've done on both hands. They're pre-glued which is another plus as you don't have the hassle of getting glue all over you, as I would tend to do knowing me. I've filed them down quite a bit so that they're not too long as I want to be careful not to get them caught while I work at the till point at work. If these last quite a while, I'm going to probably look into some Christmas ones as I love Christmas nails.

Thursday, 24 October 2013

Having recently got a job at New Look, I bought these three lovely necklaces from there a few weeks ago, when I was buying my uniform. I chose 2 gold ones and one silver as I could mix and match them with my outfits. There are so many pretty ones out at the moment but I was good and stuck to 3. I think my favourite is the deer one, it really adds something to an outfit, especially a plain white or black top. I love the detail of it and I've had some lovely comments off people at work which is really nice. But I think the one I'm getting the most use out of at the moment is the gold necklace in the second photo, as it's more versatile. Even though they are quite chunky looking necklaces, none of them are heavy and it doesn't hurt your neck so it's great, they're really comfy. I know some necklaces can be quite uncomfortable to wear but these aren't like that at all, they don't even get tangled up with my lanyard and nothing has broken off, so they're of a good quality. Sorry for the really bad lighting in the last photo, wherever I moved the necklace, there were shadows all around it because of the dark colour.

On the subject of statement necklaces, I recently wrote a guest post on ShoppingUnlike, you can read my post here. I would love it if you checked it out!

Monday, 14 October 2013

I had a really great day and I am so so grateful for having all the lovely presents. I love them all, my family are amazing. Thank you if you're reading this! And thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes.

This post will be photo heavy, so just a pre-warning.

Beautiful flowers from a great friend of mine, arrived on Saturday. And I was so excited aha that I opened them on my birthday eve. Sunflowers are my favourites and they look so pretty!

Present opening. I am so so lucky to have received these, so happy with everything.

The best cards ever. The cat one was from my parents, Cooper steals my dad's spot on the sofa everytime my dad gets up aha so it's perfect. And the royal card was from my brother. Love it.

Homemade breakfast, potato cakes, sausages, grilled sausages and fried egg. And then there was the 'American breakfast foods' (my sister skyped from university and when the American food was mentioned she went 'Is that Sophie?' She knows me so well! aha) but I was so stuffed that they were left over and I got the enjoy the lovely pancakes today.

My baby asleep in the living room, SO CUTE. I bought him that when we first got him and since yesterday, he's been on it ever since.

We went out to a really nice pub for lunch and I had chicken, bacon and leek pie with a puff pastry lid, chunky chips, green beans and pies. And for dessert, affogato al caffè with pistachio and almond flavoured ice cream. The food was so good. I don't think I've ever felt so full.

Not the best photos but as we went back to the car I noticed they had horses so had to get a photo and then I saw the pigs and I went AW out loud aha. Pigs were my favourite when I was around 5 and then I found out they bite and they weren't my favourite any more aha. But they're still cute.

A fantastic birthday cake made by my mum, filled with Italian patisserie cream. Sorry for the bad quality photo, I took it on my phone.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

A week ago I was introduced to Stylight and thought I would write a post about it. If you haven’t heard of this
site before, it’s basically a community for fashion bloggers and fashion lovers
where you can upload your own look, browse others looks or ‘heart’ an item and
add it to a wishlist for future reference.

A well-known blogger that’s a member on this site, is Carrie
from Wish wish wish. If you love posting OOTD’s or any outfit that matter, this
is a great site for people to use, especially bloggers.

A good way to describe the site would be a mixture of
Lookbook and Pinterest, just to get across an idea of what it’s like. And who
loves those sites? Bloggers! So this is a great site to have a look around. You
can find out exactly where the item is bought from and buy it yourself online
if you so wish. Personally, when I find a photo online and then can’t find out
where it’s sold online, you know that one item of clothing you see on a
celebrity that you’d love to own yourself but can never find? It frustrates me aha. And I bet I’m not the
only one who feels like this, right? Stylight helps you out no end and if you
see a bag on a blogger’s look that you’d love to own, it takes you straight to
that website and after a few clicks it can be yours. Now isn’t that so much
easier!

I had a look through some of the looks and picked my
favourite 3 looks from the site.

Sunday, 6 October 2013

For a while now, I've been wanting noodles. I love chinese food and when I get something in my head it (be it going someplace or shopping or doing something or eating something etc) it won't go away until it's out of my system. And recently being noodle obsessed, though that's not that much different for usual, because I love noodles regardless, all I've had in my head is when am I going to get the chance to have some chinese food. So the other week I thought rather than go pay for something, I'll buy the ingredients and make it all from scratch. I've made stir fry before but never a proper chicken chow mein and I'm so glad I tried it because it turned out well and now I can noodles enough for another 3 days. I made 4 portions worth so I can put the rest in the fridge and have for lunch in the next few days so yay. But I guess it depends on how big your portions are, because some people might only find that this recipe gives them 3 portions.

I intended to follow the chicken chow mein recipe from the BBC Food website, but after looking through the ingredients, I changed it around to suit me and made my own recipe. I hope you enjoy it if you try it out!

Ingredients:

150g medium egg noodles

1-2 tbsp olive oil

300g skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks or strips (I used a 400g pack and should have used the last bit, so 300/400g - it doesn't matter too much!)

4 tbsp of soy sauce (1 for the chicken, 3 at the end)

1 tsp five-spice powder

1 tsp chilli sauce

1 tbsp cornflour

150g bean sprouts

2 spring onions sliced lengthways

1 red pepper, de-seeded and finely sliced

black pepper

Instructions:

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain them, then rise under cold water and drain them again. Put to one side while you prepare the chicken.

Place the chicken strips in a bowl and add the soy sauce, five-spice powder and chilli sauce. Mix well and then dust with cornflour

Heat a frying pan (a wok is best but I used a frying pan for this so it works just as well really), add the olive oil and then add the chicken and stir fry them for 4 minutes, until the chicken is cooked.

Add the red pepper to the chicken and stir fry for 1 minute.

Ad the beansprouts and spring onion and stir fry for 30 seconds. Stir in the noodles, add some more soy sauce, to make it to your liking and some black pepper.